Navajo Ribbon Weaving

While we were drawing the finishing touches to our Boogie Monsters, I began to read the book, The Goat in the Rug by Charles Block and Martin Link. It’s a long book that explains the process of weaving a Navajo rug as told by the Goat, Geraldine, of a Navajo weaver named Glenmae. The artists were amazed that to make a traditional Navajo Rug, it takes about 1 months time. During the book, Geraldine, the goat, narrates how everything that Glenmae uses to make and color the rug comes from the Arizona desert. I love teaching weaving and have a weaving project each year. I premade looms using yarn and Styrofoam trays. I precut strips of ribbon that we would use to weave our rugs. I explained that weaving is a pattern of “Jumping Over” and “Diving Under.” Most caught on after a few tries. The most difficult part of weaving for the artists was to start each row differently than the previous row. If one row starts over, the next row needs to start under.

I wanted each artist to get about 8 ribbons on their looms. Once we finished, I glued and trimmed the ribbons so that they would be ready for display this week.

Our next project will be in Paper Mache. We will be creating horned animals by wrapping paper Mache on aluminum foil cups. Some ideas will be unicorns, narwhals, rhinos, deers, or even a Captain hook hand!